The digitization of water management is an increasingly large sector, and this growth is also noticeable in Latin America. With water utilities seeking to improve their service levels and reduce their levels of water losses and non-revenue water, incorporating digital solutions appears as an opportunity to accelerate this change process. With increasing pressure from the regional and global context focusing more and more on green policies, the commitments of companies to bind and report according to international guidelines such as the SDGs, and the need to incorporate solutions that allow accelerating these processes is imperative. Different companies are venturing into these issues and providing the necessary solutions in this context.
We recently had the opportunity to chat with José Hernandez, CEO and President of Nereus, who told us about his perspective of the sector in this region and how his company has adapted to this market. Nereus works as a solutions integrator, they design specific measurement solutions for each of their clients. Its solutions allow the measurement of the complete water cycle, from its collection, treatment, distribution, and wastewater treatment.
The need for end users to make processes and services more efficient for the best use of resources and to improve the sustainability of their processes has led to an increase in demand for smart solutions. Advances in digital solutions and the ability to integrate between different platforms have enabled end users to adopt these technologies and the incorporation of digital solutions in the next few years will result in the optimization of processes and improvement in the use of resources, especially in areas of water stress. New technologies allow more sustainable processes, with smart sensors and meters that enable lower energy and chemical product use, improved water service levels, and reduced leakage, which is a major problem in the region.
The water management market is highly complex, with very unequal service levels in each region and investments mostly focused on improving infrastructure, there is a unique opportunity to generate a special ecosystem that complements each solution provider’s gaps and strengths. The incorporation of remote measurements allows companies to reduce their operating costs, keep track of their services in real-time, anticipate problems that may arise, and generate predictions that allow them to make decisions based on real and concrete data.
Solution providers of this type will be key allies in the coming years on the path of digitalization of water management systems in Latin America, which have an end-to-end vision of the processes and allow the right solutions to be provided in each scenario. The creation of partnerships between companies from different parts of the value chain will boost this market, with different parties involved with common objectives structuring and achieving sustainability goals, the transition towards a circular economy will be increasingly accelerated
At Frost & Sullivan, we are working on our next publication of a Global Smart Water Metering Market Radar, where we will highlight the companies’ profiles that stand out in this market.
